After missing an opportunity last year, Manitoba will hike minimum wage to $15.80 in October

Manitoba's NDP government is vowing to raise the minimum wage by 50 cents in October, after passing up an opportunity to increase the province's lowest wage shortly after taking office last year. 

Labour Minister Malaya Marcelino said the government is striving to weigh the interest of workers and business owners. The minimum wage will rise to $15.80 an hour on Oct. 1, she said.

"I know for every worker, every little bit helps," Marcelino said in a late Tuesday interview. 

"We're a party that is here to fight for the rights and protections and health and safety of workers every day of the week, so they're always a top priority for me as labour minister.

"But we do have to balance all interests with the rest of Manitoba, and that includes business interests, too. They've seen hikes to the minimum wage — three hikes in a short period of time."

The new wage is based upon a formula tying annual increases to inflation. 

In 2022, the former Progressive Conservative government amended legislation to give it the authority to boost the minimum wage above and beyond the formula, but only if inflation exceeded five per cent. 

As a result, the Tories boosted the minimum wage past the formula's constraints. The wage rose to $13.50 from $11.95 on Oct. 1, 2022, followed by subsequent rises to $14.15 on Apr. 1, 2023 and $15.30 on Oct. 1, 2023.

After the election in October, the NDP had the same opportunity to hike the minimum wage because inflation remained high enough. The province could have triggered the adjustment between October and December of last year.

However, the government kept the minimum wage the same. 

Marcelino said time wasn't on the new government's side. 

"After Oct. 18 when I was called to cabinet, there wasn't really a lot of time to be able to make those types of decisions, to make the calculations and then to go through the requisite consultation period," she said.

"At that time, we were still in transition and there were other things that were priorities for us," she added, referring to other affordability measures such as cutting the gas tax and the fact the minimum wage had already been increased three times within a year.

A memo, included in the transition binder Marcelino's department received as she became minister, described the question of whether to put forth another minimum wage increase outside the formula as an "urgent matter" that needed her consideration before the end of the year.